Bergeron writes about local, state & national topics, as well as other matters of interest.

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Controversy Swirls over Site of Proposed Mosque

The entrance to the Redwood Inn is to the left of the sign, looking east on Mountaintop Road.

Monday evening, February 28, at 7 PM, Bridgewater Township’s Planning Board will meet in the Performing Arts Auditorium of the Somerset County Vocational & Technical School on 14 Vogt Drive, in Bridgewater.

Heavy attendance is expected, because this meeting was rescheduled from a prior one at the Bridgewater Municipal Complex, due to an over-capacity audience which was so large, that the meeting never got off the ground.

1) An application for land development on the site of the no-longer-operating Redwood Inn on Mountaintop Road, submitted by the Chughtai Foundation for the construction of a mosque.

An auto on Mountaintop Road moves west, past the driveway to the Redwood Inn.

2) The referral of an ordinance proposed by the Bridgewater Township Council to the Municipal Code “so as to amend theprincipal site access to certain public streets for country clubs, open air clubs, houses of worship and schools, and to amend off-street parking requirements for particular uses.” This amendment is not expected to include Mountaintop Road as one of those streets.

Autos are stopped at traffic light on Brown Road, at its intersection with State Road 202/206. Opposite, and straight ahead is the multi-lane roadway leading into and out of the Sri Venkateswara (Hindu) Temple. Traffic lights control traffic in all directions.

In this post are photos of the road characteristics near the Redwood Inn on Mountaintop Road, as well as those of the Hindu Temple off Route 202-206 which was the last big house of worship built in Bridgewater. The images show the differences in the current entry and egress capacity and flow of the two sites. They also give you an idea of the nature of the roads immediately feeding into those two locations.

A worshiper's auto is shown leaving the Temple, heading south on route 202/206.

I have included these images, because challenges voiced by residents to the construction of a mosque on Mountaintop Road have all been related to their claims that this road, because of its nature and location, cannot handle any permanent, significantly increased volume of traffic.